Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for printing a sheet by a printhead and, more particularly, to a printing apparatus for conveying sheets to a printing area facing a printhead while part of a succeeding sheet overlaps part of a preceding sheet.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-15881 describes a printing apparatus for controlling to make the marginal area of the leading edge of a succeeding sheet overlap the marginal area of the trailing edge of a preceding sheet, which comprises a feeding means for separating and feeding a plurality of sheets one by one, a printing means for forming an image on a sheet, a conveyance means for conveying a sheet to the printing means, a detection means for detecting a sheet, and a control means for controlling driving of the feeding means according to a signal of the detection means.
However, the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-15881 may start printing on the succeeding sheet before the leading edge of the succeeding sheet passes through a printing area depending on the amount of margin of the preceding sheet and that of succeeding sheet. This imposes a technical problem that a malfunction such as a paper jam or contamination caused when the leading edge of the succeeding sheet is brought into contact with a printhead occurs at high probability.